The Keeper of the System
by Person With Many Aliases
Summary: A lunatic is set amongst the Daredevils, his mission to clean the world of all 'illogical things', which is bad news when your nieghbors consist of bag heads and crossdressers. STORY IS DEAD
1. Carnival Reopened

All characters and content related to Guilty Gear, along with the series itself is property of Daisuke Ishiwatari, Sammy Corporation, and Arc System Works.

All characters related to Last Blade 2, along with the series itself is property of SNK.

And Slave trading is still outlawed here, so authors don't belong to me. But I belong to myself.

One final note: Ishiwatari in Microsoft Word is spell checked as 'dishwater'. Try it out.

Yeah, this is self insertion, but I'll show you that people can self insert and not turn the story stupid!

*******************************

CARNIVAL RE-OPENED

The figure in black looked down at the long, open decks of the Mayship, the walls gleaming with the setting sun. The man continued to stare down the hall, self-absorbed in a minor rant.

"Alas, what a good turn of events! The moment I land, I am already where I want to start! This place is always good to start carnivals at." The figure in black chuckled to itself. He then noted a two figures walking down the corridor towards him, apparently to far into their conversation to notice him.

"Tough day today, Dizzy. How was the kitchen though?" The orange clad child asked the winged figure.

"Fine, the cake should be ready soon."

"Really? I can't wait!"

"AVAST YE PIRATE CHICKS!" The man shouted to get their attention. May and Dizzy snapped their heads to see the un-expected company, which consisted of a man dressed a lot like Johnny, with the same brand pants and stylish leather jacket. He was also decked out in a black shirt, and a black bandanna that stretched over the upper half of the face, hiding his identity while the ends of the cloth stretched all the way down to the length of the jacket. Stamped onto the ground and firmly clenched in one hand was a rod the height of the man, also of black hue. His eyes were of Asian brown.

May, if she were any less of a Johnny-atic would have thought this man was Johnny himself in a superhero streak, but those long years had taught May that Johnny did NOT own a shirt. May was suddenly in her old instincts, placing herself in front of her friend.

"Who are you? You shouldn't be here mister!" May told the man harshly.

"Ah! I should be asking thee of who ye are, instead!" The man called back in his mock pirate accent.

"What do you want?"

"Is the pretty lass behind ye the one called Dizzy?"

"What is it to you?"

"If thee chick is really Dizzy, I gotta make sure to fix her, the living contradiction!" the man suddenly raised his rod at the Half ling, his body tense for combat. May already knew this was bad news.

"Speak English already!" May continued, trying to discern the actual motive.

"Fine. I'll probably either turn her into a Gear or kill her. Savvy?" The man snorted in annoyance.

"Dizzy! Go and warn Johnny and the others about this guy, I'll keep him away from you." Dizzy was a bit reluctant as always about leaving her friend, but if it would help…

Dizzy was gone in a flash.

"Blistering Barnacles! Now I shall have to hunt ye wench like gray carp in the seven seas! Do I sound like a pirate to you?"

"Get off this ship!" May had already called down her anchor and was swaying back and forth in a battle stance.

"Get off? But I never got on! I just… arrived." Despite his pleading tone, the man picked up his rod and leaned the device under his arm and gave a wide grin in anticipation of battle.

May had decided to stop playing games with this freak and charged forwards. Giving a mighty battle cry, May swung the massive steel at the man's side. He just merely hoisted his entire body up onto his staff with his arms, and gave launched both feet into the pirate's chest, knocking them both away, and the man onto the floor.

"What is this? A Japanese who will not throw fireballs? You dishonor you blood line with lack of Hadoukens!" The man broke down into giggling while lying upon the wooden floor. May was filled with anger at the fact the man was not even concerned about fighting her.

"Shut up!"

"That is SO rude!" The man swirled off the ground into a crouching position, his back facing away from May, who was charging again at him. The man simply took up his rod and aimed one end at the child, which then the device increased in length at a silent command, the new length of rod flying into May's chest as it was still extending. The force threw her a good distance away from the maniac.

"Gah! Your are so different than most fighting game heavy hitters; All brawn, and no defense. No wonder you are so low in the tiers!"

"You-you shut up!" May struggled up again, who was surprised at the amount of strength the man possesed.

"May!" a familiar cry called. May turned around to find Johnny, along with several other crew members now behind the Japanese pirate. The man was hardly intimidated by the new odds. In fact, he looked delighted.

"How nice! More people come for admission!"

"Back off, pal. I don't think you'd want to be on the wrong side of this blade." Johnny said coldly, hand gripped on his weapon.

"What! At this moment of triumph of which I am already so close to completing my mission of fixing all that is screwed up in this world? May some form of higher life strike me down with a Ion Cannon before I drop my duties!"

Johnny only picked up the part about his duties, "Look, just who the heck are you and what beef do you have with Dizzy?"

"Are you asking for a name?"

"That would be a good start."

"Well, then a name you shall never find! Such meaningless things restrict me from my potential! All people's names are my name! All people are my alias! I am a person with many aliases! How cool is that? Oh, and as for Dizzy, just her breathing just pisses me off."

"What?" Dizzy was surprised by such comment.

"You must be Gear-ified or dead! Suck breezy!" The man brought up the rod and started spinning it in a full circle in front of him, creating an immense wind that started pushing everyone backwards. Dizzy was also dangerously close to the edge of the ship. Just as suddenly the man stopped spinning, hoppped up and started running along the railing that guarded the edge, thus the person ran past all the pirates and up to the Gear, who along with everybody else had just started recovering from the ordeal. The person then spun in a full circle, with leg outstretched.

The kick caught under the jaw of Dizzy who was pulled off her feet and carried by the leg momentarily, but then gravity caught up, which meant she was launched off the ship and towards the ground below the ship in a sickening déjà vu.

Everyone managed to see Dizzy give a cry of fear before disappearing into the forest. Also they saw the man jump up with his weapon onto a very inaccessible part of the hull of the vehicle.

"Dizzy falls and is followed by mandatory scream of terror. I should be going down to take a photo of Dizzy as a street pizza, or should I say forest pizza?" The man broke down into laughing again.

"Get down here and fight coward!" May cried at the man.  
  


"No! I done all I need to do! I have successfully deleted an inconsistency of the world!"

"What are you talking about?" Johnny shouted in anger at the man whose cold, psychotic grin could have matched the Cheshire cat a hundred times over.

"As duty of an author of the universe, I am charged with making sure that all things illogical, inconsistent, and contradictory are not to be existent. For if Illogical things are allowed, what's to stop the universe from saying horrible things like air is the same things as hot magma? The system of the world is so buggy."

"What's this got to do with Dizzy?" May asked.

"There is no such thing as half a Gear, such as there is no such thing as half a human: it is mathematically and logically incorrect! So how on earth does a thing like Dizzy exist? She shouldn't, and she won't. That is why I restart the Carnival." The man finished in a cold growl.

"This isn't some math problem you can fix! This is human life you're talking about!" Johnny shouted.

"Nonsense! When you see the things I see, you'll realize that life is nothing more than series of rules that lie on top of each other. Anyways, I should be checking if poor, sweet Dizzy is actually a poor, sweet flat paste. Ciao all!" The man raised his rod above himself, which seemed to shrink and warp in form, until one side was hooked, and the other side looked slightly bulbous. The man then pressed something on the rod, which made the bulbous section open up into the wide expanses of an umbrella. Holding on tight, the winds picked up on the umbrella, which proceeded to carry the cackling man off his feet and let him gently drift downwards.

"C'mon! We gotta get down there! Where's the closest safe place for landing?"

"London city, only a few miles away!" May called back.

"Full speed!"

*********************************

The fall wasn't the worst bit. Unfortunately for Dizzy, she ended up landing on the side of a rather rocky hill; on and on she went, rolling and crashing against everything she saw, until she finally came to a gentle stop. Her small body shivered from the pain that bleed from every wound, especially the one on the back of her head. All she could do was breath heavily and hope the nausea would leave. The world seemed to blacken around her as she saw someone approach her.

"Dizzy…" The voice seemed to start to cry out, but she did hear the last part, the black had already consumed her world, and laid her to gentle sleep.


	2. Tag

TAG

"He isn't in his room!"

"What? How could he get away?"

"I don't know, but in the state he's in…"

"We have to find him before he does something stupid."

"He probably escaped through the hub by now, let's try and follow him"

"Of course."

*************************************

It was all a dream, Dizzy decided. She pushed her face further into the pillow, and tried to remove the last memories out of her head while her eyes remained closed. 'This is all a dream; I'm actually sleeping in my room in the Mayship. Not lying hurt in a forest' She continued to reason the notion of falling several thousand feet but waking up wrapped in blankets. 

"Dizzy? Are you awake?" A feminine voice asked beside her.

'And that would be April, or May or one of my friends that came to wake me up.' Dizzy thought to herself while slowly turning her head to face the voice.

"Bridget?" Dizzy now looked around the room, which was a fancifully decorated with a healthy amount of gold colored stuff, and other materials that allowed one to yell out 'rich' when you saw the room at first glance. Also in a chair beside the Gear was the aforementioned young bounty hunter who was, for some reason, wearing his outside clothes that he usually wore while going out on bounties.

"Dizzy! Your awake!" Bridget practically jumped out of his chair while grabbing Dizzy's nearby hand in concern. "Are you alright?"

Dizzy, previously overwhelmed by the fact she was NOT in the Mayship now noticed her body covered in numerous bandages. Well, as many bandages as Bridget could put on without stripping her naked of her pirate uniform. "How did I get here?" Dizzy asked.

"You tell me. All I know is that I was walking through the woods near my house today and I found you rolling down the hill all messed up. I carried you back here."

"How long was I asleep?"

"Not to long actually. Maybe only an hour at most."

Dizzy smiled and nodded her head at the Bounty Hunter. "Thank you for taking care of me, Bridget."

Bridget's face redden slightly as he chuckled sheepishly, "Nah, its alright. Anything for a friend, right?"

"I suppose."

"But how did you get down here like this anyways?" Bridget asked, switching to the more serious topic at hand.

"I was thrown off."

"What? By who?"

"I don't know. A man in black just appeared in the ship, calling me a contradiction and saying that he wanted to turn me into a Gear or kill me."

"That's horrible. What sort of lunatic would call anybody a contradiction?"

"I don't know, but he is very powerful. I think he might know that I'm still alive."

At the sound of those words, a very familiar voice yelled out, the words reaching past the window in the room so that the hunter and the Gear could hear.

"Oi! Does anybody live in this freaky looking joint?" The voice harshly cried out. Bridget walked over to the window in the room that faced the direction of the man.

"Who's there Bridget?" Dizzy asked in fear of the inevitable.

"Some guy in black with a staff."

"His head! What is he wearing on his head?" Dizzy asked more desperately.

"Some black bandanna or something that a superhero wears."

"It's him! It's the man that wants to kill me!" Dizzy said in fear.

"What? This guy?"

"Yes."

"I'll take care of him. Just stay here."

"Be careful." Dizzy said to the bounty hunter's turned back as he left the room.

*****************************

" 'Bout freakin' time somebody came out here!" The person snorted.

"Well, here I am. Who are you and what do you want?" Bridget asked, feigning any knowledge of the events taking place.

"Are you the only guy who lives here?" The man asked.

"Right now, yes."

"Well, have you seen a blue haired, red eyed, looks-nineteen-but actually-three-year-old chick with a tail and two wings attached to her back capable launching various amounts of artillery?" The man asked again.

"No." Bridget said quickly.

"Well, then I don't believe you, kid."

"I tell you, that I never saw anybody around here who looks like that." Bridget flatly said

  
"Wait! I have this little doo-hickie here…" the man raised his staff to emphasize a flat black disc on the bottom, that looked a lot like a metal detector. "This thing is capable of finding even the most minute amount of metal. Can even detect the iron in blood."

"So?" again the hunter said flatly.

"So, using this device I found a trail of iron AKA blood that led from the bottom of a hill all the way to the front doorstep of your house. You carried something bleeding inside." The person said in a cold tone.

"There is no one in this house except me." Bridget replied firmly.

"Bullshit! I know where Dizzy fell, and I know you dragged her into your house. Now lemme in little girl!" The man walked forward.

"No!" Bridget, seeing the inevitable, let loose his Yo-yos, aiming the devices at the man's ankles, hoping to take him out with little trouble. The person merely knocked the flying weapons out of the way with his staff.

"You wanna fight me? You have no idea what your up against."

"Fine!" Bridget pulled on his yo-yos, making them swing around in a circle. Bridget then hunched down with his hand in the air so that the weapons swung in a complete circle above him, with hopes it would collide with the man's side. Again the man knocked the attack away.

"What foolishness is this? Dragon Flame!" The man swung this staff into the ground, the reaction causing a large geyser of flame explode out of the ground at the bounty hunter. Bridget easily blocked this attack by letting the yo-yos form a star in front of him, but the force drove him backwards. The man then charged in to capitalize.

_Man, this guy isn't messing around! And the strength of his attacks…_ Bridget thought while throwing a yo-yo into the air and past the attacking man. The person ignored the supposedly meaningless action until he saw the English man suddenly tuck his arms under his chin and started flew past him in a rolling manner.

"Crazy girl! You'll get a headache like that!" The man swiveled around to continue his chase. Bridget had other plans as he landed.

"Loop the loop!" The bounty hunter was sure that even if the man blocked, there was no way he could block them all. The man turned around to turn his back at Bridget, while his staff with both hands across his back, forming a block, much to Bridget's surprise a green shield also started to be emitted around the man so that all the swings of the yo-yos impacted harmlessly around the man, while he sneered through the shield. As soon as the technique was finished, the person turned around.

"Faultless Defense is your friend!" The man laughed loudly.

"How did you do that!?" Bridget harshly interrogated.

"What? I thought all you guys knew how to do that. Oh well. Panzer Cracker!" The man swung the black rod over his shoulder and got onto his knees. The staff grew in width and a handle sprouted onto one end that the person gripped, from the hollow that appeared in the large staff, a missile flew out towards Bridget, who let the yo-yo's form a star again to block the projectile, which smashed against the barrier multiple times before disappearing.

"Wait! How did you make your weapons change forms?"

  
"All creators should keep their secrets to themselves, little girl."

  
"I'm not a girl!"

"Of course you are! What on earth are you talking about?"

"I'm a guy!"

The person raised an eyebrow, "You must kidding."

Bridget face was clearly serious. The man's face paled, while he cringed and dropped his weapon in shock

"NEYAH!!!! That isn't right!!! You can't be a boy and girl at the same time!! Just my luck, I came for one, and I find two illogical things!"

Bridget's face flustered with anger, "Are you implying something?"

"No, I was just saying that now I find you are an illogical element as well. No wonder this place is so screwed up."

"Hey! Shut up!" Bridget then jumped onto his yo-yos and rode them towards the person, in hopes of running him over.

"Neh! You're a very rude as well! Parry!" The man swung out his staff in front of him and held it in front of him, just as Bridget's attack hit the rod. Bridget seemed to be frozen for a few seconds in his position before the person smashed the rod into Bridget's gut. Again to the bounty hunter's supirse, he found his body mechanically staggering backwards for no reason, while the person made a pose and was about to make a thumb down motion. Then a large voice echoed out of nowhere.

"ROMANTIC!"

The person suddenly emitted blue circles that radiated from him while he suddenly charged out of his posture with inhuman reactions. The person suddenly swung his rod around him in a blur of swings, while shouting out 'Majestic Mix'. Bridget, still stumbling backwards for no reason, could not defend against the attack as he felt hard steel smash against his body everywhere. Falling to the ground, Bridget was about to get back up again, but the man's foot mashed into his chest and pushed him back into the dirt. The man's weapon sharpened on one side, and the man aimed it at Bridget's neck, preparing to plunge in.

"And with your death I shall become invincible! Well, that was how that moron said it in The Mummy. Anyways, I gotta kill you since you're contradictory too, then Dizzy's next." The man said matter-of-factly

"You can't do this! You're crazy!"

"That would be half-insane. You have no idea what I am like when I really am totally crazy."

_Can't let him kill me… wait I still have…_ Bridget pulled on one of the yo-yo cables, which sent silent commands to the floating apparatus in the air behind the person.

"Here Roger! Come!"

"You are really-" the man's sentence was cut as a spinning teddy bear with one fist outstretched, smashed into the back of the lunatic, making him back away in an equally mechanical stagger as the bear continued to smash the man while flying back to his owner.

_Have to end this now._ Bridget, doing a complex series of tricks, ended up with one of the yo-yo's slipping out of control and hitting him on the head. The man, now that the attacks subsided, started to approach again.

"Ha ha! Now I shall destroy you for wasting time not attack-" his rant was again interrupted at a series of explosions erupted from the air around him, caused by the bad trick Bridget preformed. As the bounty hunter got back up he saw the man in black fly flying into the air.

"AHHHHHH!!!!! Looks like I'm blasting off again!!!!! Pokemon is property of Nintendoooooooo…." The man disappeared in the horizon until the sky gave of a flash as the final mark of his position. Bridget just wiped the sweat off his head. 

"That was tough."

"Bridget!" Dizzy's voice cried out. Said bounty hunter turned around to see the injured pirate limp/run towards him.

"Dizzy, you shouldn't run like that!" Bridget said in distress, but the Gear just shook it off.

"I heal fast, remember? But you nearly got killed!" Dizzy suddenly said.

"Oh this? Just a bruise." Bridget answered while gingerly touching his sides.

"Are you sure?"

Bridget nodded, "I managed to get the guy away, but I think he'll be back quickly enough. We need to get you out of here."

"But where?"

"The closest place is London, and that's the only place you could land something the size of Johnny's ship. Your friends are bound to be there. We should go there."

"Okay."

*******************************

The travel to London city was a long one, and by the time the two managed to there, it was night time and raining hard, but it was a busy city and people ran and walked here and there despite the rain.

"So where should we go now, Bridget?" Dizzy asked as she looked around her surroundings from under the covered area of the shop the two were in.

"I guess we should go to the airfield. C'mon let's take the Underground." Unfortunately, as Bridget finished that sentence, a familiar cry of terror started echoing throughout the area, making the people near by look around. Then a man fell from the sky and into the nearby riverside. The soaked person clawed his way onto the pavement with his rod, sputtering water and rants all the way.

"Stupid boy-girl, launching me into the sky and stuff. Don't they call those people a goy-YOU!?!!?" The person, who hoisted his whole body out of the water, now noticed the fleeing figures of Bridget and Dizzy, who were heading towards the subway entrance.

"Hey! You know I don't like the subway!" The person's weapon then changed shape again, turning the large shoulder mounted bazooka. Firing the new projectile weapon, the rocket exploded against the entrance and made the device collapse onto itself in front of the two 'illogicals'. People now started screaming and running everywhere, giving Bridget the chance to grabbed Dizzy by the wrist and run down the street away from the distracted person. The man simply stared at the disappearing figures for a few seconds before leaping onto the roof of a building. Bridget noticing nobody chasing them, stopped Dizzy and himself for a second while looking around.

"I think we lost him." Dizzy said between pants.

"Nope! Your friendly and absolutely lovable maniac armed with a bazooka is up here!" cried the man's voice as the pirate and hunter looked up to see the person bearing down on them with the shoulder-mounted cannon, which fired an especially sharp ended rocket. The two on the ground threw themselves to the side to see the weapon impact and dig quite deep into the ground beside them, but not explode.

"Oh, dratty! I missed again." The man faked a pout before aiming again. Bridget and Dizzy were up from the ground and running again from the comment. Soon enough rocket-propelled metal spears started flying through the air and lodged themselves just behind the escaping couple. As the two ran to a city square, they ran blindly into a man.

"Dizzy!?" Johnny said surprised as he saw the girl barrel into her. Dizzy looked up in surprise before shouting in warning.

"He's coming!"

Johnny needed no more warning as he drew his sheathed weapon and instinctively smashed the flying rocket away before turning to face the man on the roof, who was giving a cheeky grin.

"Man, everyone seems to be dressing funny these days! Can you stop knocking my missiles away?" the man asked while firing another rocket, which was predictably thrown out of its original course by Johnny's weapon.

"You, kid." Johnny quickly hissed at Bridget, "Since your helping Dizzy, get her to the air field and into hanger fifteen, got it?"

"Uh, okay." Bridget said very stupidly before being dragged away by Dizzy this time.

"Round two now, loser!" Johnny shouted to the person.

"Round what? Did we fight in the past? Because usually I just meet people, since most don't survive for a round two…" The person said before jumping down to meet the pirate king in battle.

*********************************

"I tell you, there is nothing that can beat Scotch! I tell you indeed." Axl chuckled and drank more of the gold liquid while conversing to a random person next to him. Axl had returned for his yearly memory trip back to London, where he used to live. The bar he was currently drinking in was the one he actually used to drink in regularly back in his old time. Luckily, the place managed to survive all these years.

"Ya know I used to drink here a lot, mate. I was pretty surprised this place was still standing."

"I drank here all my life, another funny thing is during all this time, not a single fight started here!"

Just Axl's drinking buddy finished, a body was hurled through the glass window in the front of the pub, flying all the way to the bar counter where the man collided back first with most of the bottles and falling down on the other side of Axl.

"Oi! You better be paying for all that crap!" The bartender shouted at the figure, that pulled himself up onto the counter one arm at a time. Axl raised an eyebrow.

"Johnny? What are you doing here in London? And are you going to pay for all that booze?"

"Man, that guy got one hell of a swing… Yeah, I'll pay when I can" Johnny pulled himself up while checking for any damage in his hat.

"Dude, man! You didn't break a neck! Now it'll make killing THIS much harder!" the lunatic said, stepping through the broken window.

"Whose this guy?" Axl said calmly while pointing to the approaching figure. "Dresses amazingly like you!"

"Some wannabe that wants to kill me, though I never thought I'd be that popular." Johnny replied before hoping over the counter to face the man.

"You going to fight him?" Axl asked.

"Yes."

"WHAT!? Hold it right here!" Axl was suddenly of his seat to push his arms between the two men in black. "Now I know you want to rip each others head off, but not here! This bar has a great tradition of being one of the FEW bars in London that never found itself holding a fight! Now I want you two to step out!"

"What? Are you stopping me from stopping this man who's trying to stop my divine-ish mission!?" The person harshly accused.

"Yah?"

"Why, I oughta-" Before the man could finish, a long chain wrapped itself around the man's head and buried it in metal. Axl, holding the other end of his chained weapons, dragged the attached man to the front door. A quiet applause for the Brit erupted as Axl carried the lunatic out the door, followed by Johnny.

************************

"How dare you stop our fight! I'm putting you in my 'to kill' list right now!" the man charged at Axl.

"Hey! I wasn't ready yet!" Axl frantically shouted at the new change of situation while putting his sickles in front of him instinctively.

"Be ready!" The man then thrust his rod at Axl, who defended the attack. The man then swung around to block an attack by Johnny.

"What is this? Isuka already?" The man sniggered, then flipped behind Johnny to face both Brit and Pirate at once. "I'll just even it out a bit…" The man's rod suddenly snapped in two, receding into two short rods with a long black chain in the middle, a single sickle blade on both rods.

"Hey! Where'd you get a weapon like that?" Axl asked, surprised.

"That's a secret." The person said before ducking down low to swing one end of the sickle imitation at his opponents, the blade covered in a red glow.

Axl and Johnny blocked the new attack again, Axl this time looking very upset, "That ain't right! You can't have that technique! It's mine!"

"Hey! It's a free country, you dork!" The man suddenly threw himself into the air to dive bomb at the Brit.

"Mist Finer!" The man was immediately flung back through the air, and for the first time, letting go of his weapon accidentally. The man then fell back to the ground before quickly jumping up again.

"Will you just give up?" Johnny groaned.

"I give up only when something unexpected happens!" The man shouted back.

The rod then fell back down and landed on his head.

"Owie." The man uttered before falling over, obviously unconscious.

"That…was unexpected." Johnny blinked.

"Yah, but the problem's over, right?" Axl asked. The man raised his head for a second, shocking them both.

"For your information, as soon as I wake up, I'm going to kill you to, you crazy brit!" The man angrily shouted before slumping his head back, re-entering the state of unconsciousness. Johnny and Axl blinked again, Axl though was starting to sweat a bit.

"Well… I think I'm going to need to get some help for dealing with this guy." Johnny commented.

"Um… Johnny?"

"Yes?"

"You're letting rooms on your ship to rent, right?"

"Depends on how long your staying."

"Until that guy stops trying to kill me?"

"Fine."


	3. Cops and Robbers

COPS AND ROBBERS

"I don't like this."

"There's no other person we know who can get through to the other side and concentrate on this matter."

"I know, but…"

"But what?"

"There's a rule I learned a very hard way."

"Which is?"

"Never let the girlfriend of your friend do your work, even if she can do it better than you."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No, but I still don't like it, she's still under powered in comparison to him."

"Don't worry, she can take care of herself."

"You better be right for both our sakes."

******************************************

"Apparently strange forces are beginning to act in this world." Slayer tapped some tobacco into his pipe before lighting it and continuing, "An isolated, but dangerous event."

Slayer turned to face Sol Badguy, who simply leaned against a nearby tree to avoid the sun's rays, arms folded with one hand still holding the blade Fireseal in the 'incorrect' fashion. Slayer, on the other hand decided to bask in its warmth while sitting on his cape, which floated above the grassy meadow.

"What's this gotta do with me?" Sol gruffly asked.

"I come to inform you that I have felt someone, or something of great power targeting someone of your interest."

Sol's eyes narrowed, "Dizzy?"

Slayer gave out another puff of smoke, "Yes, indeed. The force is attacking the one Gear and Human. It has nearly succeeded in its last attempt, and it will attack again."

"I-no?"

"No, that reckless woman has already been dealt with accordingly by her master. This force is something…else, unrelated in anyway to this world, yet it decides to act in it. How peculiar…"

"Same could be said for you."

"My connection to this world is my curiosity to these humans. Of course, it is not my place to act in this affairs at the moment, but I believe I can aid you in your duties in a minor way."

"Shoot."

"I have received a minor foresight on this matter, and I see that the child will be heading to China shortly, but not after losing a dear friend to her. Not that you would care. You should be going to Beijing now."

"Of course."

**************************************

The Jellyfish (with Bridget and Axl around) had landed in Paris to inform Ky Kiske, the head of the IPF (and possibly the only police cop there who could wait longer than five seconds before biting a pirate's head off) about the new developments. Johnny, being captain decided he should go personally. He also told Dizzy to stay aboard the ship, where it was safest. As for May:

"Look, I'll just be giving the cop a quick visit, I'll be back in a flash, alright?" Johnny was trying to reason with his second in command, May, who was insistent on following him.

"But I wanna go with you! What if that creeps shows up?" May asked, pouting.

 Johnny got down on his knees and held May firmly by the shoulders "What if that creep shows up here, and there's nobody to lead the crew while I'm gone? Somebody's got to take care Dizzy while I'm gone, and I trust you can do that, okay?"

"Okay…" May mumbled

"Good. Don't worry I'll be back, you'll see." Johnny ended in a grin, which cheered May up somewhat. The pirate captain then headed out the door of the command deck and through the intricate passages of the Mayship towards the exit hatch.

*************************************

Ky Kiske was in his office, which had a large window behind his desk. He had received in secret a notice that the Pirate Johnny was going to meet him, which just simply meant that Ky called everybody off work early today. Ky himself stayed behind saying that he had some 'memos to finish up' which he did while waiting for the Pirate, who had the very bad problem of never arriving on time.

Ky then heard a tapping on the glass window behind him. Ky didn't even bother turning around.

"It's unlocked, just push on the window." Ky said while signing a paper. He then felt a gush of wind pour in while Johnny jumped into the room.

"Afternoon Kiske."

"Afternoon, Johnny."

There was an air of silence for a few seconds. Kiske and Johnny never really truly hated each other (that was reserved for someone worth the time), but still seeing your natural enemy is very trying on your nerves.

"So what do you want from me, Pirate?" Ky asked, "It sounded very urgent."

"It is. Somebody is trying to off Dizzy."

Ky whirled around in his chair to face the Pirate, "What? Who?"

"I don't know. He popped up on my ship and said he wanted to kill her, or turn her into a Gear. I don't think he's your run of the mill Bounty Hunter or Mad man either. His weapon can shape shift, and I have a feeling that isn't the end of the stuff he's hooked up with."

"How is Dizzy?"

"She got hurt by a lucky shot, but she's fine at the moment." Johnny decided to censor the entire bit about his crewmember falling of the ship.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Ky asked.

"Keep your eyes peeled for this lunatic, and be sure to stop him."

"Fine, but would it be okay to check how Dizzy is doing first?"

Johnny shrugged, "I'm not stopping you."

Then someone outside screamed.

**********************************

Ky, with the Thunderseal Jinki in hand rushed out into the streets, the pirate captain following soon after. Throngs of people were running in one direction, all filled with fear of an approaching object.

"Sir, excuse me, what is going on?" Ky asked one of the fleeing men he grabbed by the arm.

"What are you doing standing around like that? Get out of here before it runs you over!" The man quickly flung Ky's arm of and began running again.

"Runs you over?" Johnny raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever it is, I don't like the sound of it." Ky responded. A rumbling of a machine soon filled the air, and fleeing peoples' pace quickened. Ky and Johnny then saw the cause of the problem. There he stood triumphantly, staff in hand as always, the lunatic 'author' who vowed to destroy Dizzy. 

But what he stood on was the problem.

A massive metal beast clad in red steel and metal, the machine the size of a small house. Four large, fat treads were fitted on the sides of the machine. A wicked, oversized cannon was fitted into a moving 'head' section on the top of the machine where the man stood on, while two smaller multi-barreled cannons were placed on either side. The machine stopped in front of the two.

"Black tech!?" Ky gasped at the oversized red tank.

"What the heck is that thing?" Johnny said, in an equal gape at the device.

"Surprise everybody! Like my new toy?" The person called down at the two.

_This is for sure the man Johnny talked about._ Ky narrowed his eyes at the man, who was waiting patiently for an answer. "You! Where did you get that thing?" Ky shouted.

"Hey! I recognize you! Your that knightly knight fellow, Kisky. Look at you, all macho and everything." The person chuckled.

"Answer the question!" Ky shouted again.

"Well, I had the blue prints to this fine baby quite a while back. Oh yes, oh yes, a very good price I got this at. But enough about that! Let me introduce you to my friend!" The man hopped down of the turret of the tank to stand beside it. 

"Ladies and Gentleman! I present to you Super Vehicle Oh-Oh-One-Ex. Better known to the world as 'Battle Slug' or even better, 'The first boss in Metal Slug Five'! 40 miles per hour, an anti-infantry Napalm Cannon on a 90 degree rotational swivel as its primary weapon, while dual 50 round-per-minute grenade launcher protect it from the air and behind, and my personal favorite, Jump-jets on the bottom to give the enemy the ultimate body slam! Thank god I said that finally. Memorizing all those lines was a pain." The man finished announcing with a sigh.

"Well, regardless of what it is, you're under arrest for disturbing the peace, being in possession of Black Technology, assault, and attempted murder from what I hear." Ky said.

"Well, why else do I have a freaking tank!? To go on a joy ride? No, this bloody thing I made to make sure to run over that pirate ship of his, and to be an anti-vehicle of you! You can't hurt me in this time! Battle Slug, it's show time!" The man jumped back onto the turret, opened a hatch on the top and hopped in. The moment he entered the vehicle, the machine gave a large revving sound of activation, while smog poured out of the exhaust pipes in the back. The Battle Slug moved forward towards the cop and robber.

Ky took no time to attack. Flinging out his weapon out at the machine in a wide arc, Ky gave a quick shout of 'Stun Edge' while releasing a crescent shaped projectile of electricity at the tank. The Stun Edge collided against the front of the approaching vehicle, which then briefly flashed.

"What? No damage?" Ky uttered, shocked at the change of events. Hidden speakers placed on the tank answered in the person's voice.

"No actually you did do damage. One point of it. While in Metal Slug this was not a problem since you could blast away at an insane rate, here you can only shoot one attack at a time, which is good new to me. Now suffer and all that related stuff!" The tank's main cannon fired a flaming orb at Ky and Johnny, who quickly ducked out of the way. The shell then hit the ground and exploded into a blanket of flaming gel, which stuck to the ground.

"Mist Finer!"

"Stuuuuunnnnnn EDGE!" the new tone was followed by a charged version of the last Stun Edge.

"Ensenga!"

"Greed Sever!"

The Battle Slug flashed white at each attack, but then returned fire with several shots from the rapid-fire grenade launchers on either side of the tank as it continued on its war rampage towards the Mayship.

_Such strength of Blacktech, that it even repels my Jinki _"We hit it in every angle, but all it doesn't do anything!" Ky groaned, he then turned to his nearby companion, "Johnny, doesn't your ship have any large weapons?"

"Sort of, but I don't want to take the chance!" Johnny said before he had to duck under a low flying Naplam shot. He then retaliated with another Mist Finer attack.

"Its our only chance to stop him at this point!"

"I'll crush you under my treads! Gives me more style points when I beat this level!" The speakers on the vehicle said before giving an insane laughter. The Battle Slug's speed increased dramatically after that, threatening to run over the two as said in the person's threat.

"Your Mayship's weapons are probably the only thing that can give sustainable damage at this point, let's just go!" Ky shouted to Johnny amidst the continuing weapon's fire

"Fine!" Johnny then joined Ky in running as fast as they could while the red beast continued to rain flames on them and give chase to the fleeing men.

********************************

Axl Low laid on his belly on the top of the Mayship, bored out of his wits while he looked out at the horizons of the empty grass fields surrounding the city, hoping that he would see the Landlord of his current staying place, so that this giant plane would finally start moving out of here.

"Ah, blimey, does really take that long for one guy to talk to another guy and then walk back here?" Axl was about to sigh again for the fourth time in the past half hour when he noticed two quickly approaching figures, one in black, and the other in mostly white. Axl grinned, finally seeing things going right and he stood up and waved at the two coming in fast.

"Yo! What took you so long?" Axl hollered to the Johnny, who was becoming more visible each second.

"Stop talking and tell the crew to man the cannons!" Johnny shouted back

"The wha'?" Axl said confused. His confusion quickly turned to shock as he gaped at the sight of the ground exploding around Johnny and the Ky, while a huge red tank appeared over the horizon and towered over the escaping two. "Holy crap! I thought tanks weren't around during this time!"

"Will you stop talking and tell the crew to shoot this thing!?" Johnny shouted again.

"Okay!" The time traveler shouted back before running to a near by access hatch.

"Finally!" Johnny managed to say. Then the tank suddenly dropped in from the sky in front of them.

"How the-" Ky started.

"Stupid! I told you this thing got jump jets! Now prepare to be utterly smooglefied! That word I made up if you were wondering." The speakers triumphantly shouted

Johnny noticed the machine gun turrets on the Mayship starting to rotate to face the Battle Slug. _That's it, keep talking, you crazy freak_ "Really? And I suppose you know where the word smoogle comes from?"

"Ah…. not really." The speakers answered back, then it's backside started exploding from weapons fire, while the vehicle started shaking from the impacts, and flashing white repeatedly. "Ah!!!! Enemy in the rear! Damn the Torpedoes!!! Damn them all! Run away and everything!" The red tank then blew up, leaving a large fireball behind that highlighted wreckage. There was a moment of silence.

A moment.

"Ahhhh!!! Fire!!!! This is taking flaming too far!!!" The lunatic ran out of the burning wreckage, while his coat and head was on fire. He was still carrying his staff miraculously, which quickly mutated into a fire extinguisher form that the author used to surround himself in a cloud of white smoky gas. "This actually feels good…"

"How could you have survived that!?" Ky said in shock.

"How the heck do you always lose to a moron who's only good for his Dust loop?" The person retorted.

"Who?"

"Oh nevermind, I'll just kill Dizzy since I'm here already." The person shrugged.

"Oh no you don't!" Johnny let fly his blade that the man blocked very easily.

"Oh! You really want to fight, eh?" The man sneered. He then swung his black staff around himself in a complex series of moves before resting in a stance, "Come, then! Have at you!" The person jabbed on end at the pirate mockingly.

The person then raised his rod above his head to deflect a white blade coming from behind before swinging around to retaliate. Ky jumped back to avoid the attack while raising his own blade above his head.

The 'author' narrowed his eyes. "Don't fight me, kid. I have no beef with you. I'm not sharing pork either."

"But you are attacking someone I have agreed to look after, that makes you my problem."

"Fine! I'll destroy all who protect the mistakes of the world!" He shouted back annoyed. His pirate adversary then attacked again, which the person blocked again. Ky then struck on the person's other side, which the man swung back around to block as well. Soon enough, the three were caught up in a fierce sword battle with furious swinging, clashing of steel, and dodging of attacks.

"Johnny! We're coming!" May's voice suddenly yelled. The person turned to see the younger pirate running towards the battle with Bridget and Axl in tow, along with several other members of the Mayship who could fight.

"What is this?! I though only four players per match!" The person started, before Johnny's sheathed blade hit him in the side of the head.

 The person's entire body swung around in a very exaggerate manner. "Ow."

Ky then swung the flat of the Thunderseal at the back of the man's head, trying to knock him unconscious, which did nothing more than make the man stumble around more.

"Owie."

While the reinforcements were coming, Johnny and Ky soon were caught up just knocking the man around, while he just kept saying 'ow' and waving with the blows like a dummy. Ky changed pace by sliding into the man's legs and then swinging out his sword as his momentum ended, making the lunatic trip up and fly a distance back where he landed on his back. The man was yet again talking to himself as the crowd approached, lead by Johnny.

"Out numbered, out gunned, and out…something else that I forgot." The man got up, while motioning for one end of his staff to open up to reveal a smaller connected instrument that looked like a blue marker. "Looks like I'm going to have to make you guys play old school again!" He then swiped the rod against the ground, the end with the marker creating a blue line on the grass before the man jumped backwards. Johnny was the first to cross the line.

"Okay! Game start!" the man shouted. The line began to glow. But because everybody was more concerned about fighting the retreating figure, they all (with the exception of Johnny, who was the first to cross the line) collided against a blue transparent wall that emanated from where the line was drawn. The barrier, while visible was shown to completely surround the man and Johnny, trapping them within a rectangular arena-like confine. The captain turned around to see in shock at the new problem.

"What the bloody hell?" Axl rubbed his head while looking at the barrier. May was in the pounding against the wall, shouting and trying to find a way to enter.

"Let me in you FREAK! Let me in!" May shouted while continuing to slam her weapon and her fist against the obstacle between her and her aiding Johnny.

"How on earth did you do this?!" Ky shouted at the man.

"I dunno, I just know how to make 'em. I always wondered how Sol Dust Looped without one of these…" The man absently mindedly scratched his head at the baffling mystery.

 "Let me out." Johnny said, with a bit of edge in his voice.

"Um, I can't. You see this thing can only open up when one of us gets defeated. So the only way out is through me, which is rather impossible."

"Fine." Johnny turned to face May, who was outside the arena. " May, take the Mayship and get out of here. I'll stay behind and catch up later."

"WHAT?!" May said in shock.

"Excuse me? Nooooooo!" The person cried in a rather fake dramatic style.

"Look, I just don't want you guys to be in danger in case I actually lose. Just get out of here, and I'll catch up later."

"But I want to help!"

"You can help best by protecting your friends. That's an order from your captain." Johnny said sternly.

"That's an order from your captain." The person said mockingly.

"Johnny…"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Nobody can match your Johnny." The pirate said with confidently, which made his second in command cheer up slightly. Johnny then faced Ky. "Take care of my crew, just in case."

"Alright." Ky said, before ushering the others back to the ship.

"Go get him!" May said before running back to the Pirate's vessel.

"Bloody swear word! What was I thinking to set up the arena like this!?" the lunatic groaned and watched the propellers on the Mayship start up and pull the vehicle forwards.

"Do you ever think?" Johnny flew forwards, charging energy into his fist. The wind suddenly picked up as the Mayship left the ground and entered the air.

"Yes!" Johnny's opponent rushed in as well.

"Divine blade!" Johnny flung his fist downwards, releasing a column of flame down at the 'author'. The man jumped away from the attack easily. Johnny landed in time only to roll out of the way to avoid a giant ax head that slammed into his last position. The man raised the black battle-ax from its fallen position to raise it in the air.

"I'll cut you into one half pieces!" the person swung his ax around to catch Johnny's side. The pirate jumped over the attack and retalitated.

"Mist finer!" The lightning fast attack smashed into the gut of the recovering man, who flew through the air and crashed into the nearby barrier wall making him fall down.

_Wait, I can use this wall to my advatage!_ Johnny dashed forward and managed to make it before the man hit the ground. He then unleashed another Mist finer upwards at the falling figure, which made him bounce back up into the wall before, as Johnny predicted, falling back down again for another opportune Mist finer attack. Johnny obliged and continued to release his lightning fast slashed at the repeatedly falling man. The victim only sneered at his turn of events.

"Arc System Works saw this flaw long time ago! BURST!" Instead of falling, the man floated in the air for a few seconds while making a pose a releasing a blue energy around him, which knocked the offending pirate away from the 'author'. As Johnny got back up he saw the man rush forward, sneering.

"I'll give you a taste of your own Loop crap! Dragon Flame!" The man swung his rod into the earth, creating again the geyser of flame that smashed into the surprised pirate. Johnny flew into the air and hit the barrier like the person did, also falling down. As Johnny fell, his attacker quickly kicked him back up before jumping up and smashing his rod into Johnny, making the pirate crash back into the wall.

"Tcheiya!" the man shouted mechanically before falling before the pirate, while repeating the same attack. Johnny began to fall again before the person jumped up and repeated the process, complete with his strange war cry of 'tchieya'. But unlike the game that the lunatic was simulating, Johnny had not way to escape the Dust Loop, and he lost the same amount of strength with each repeated blow. Johnny only barely managed to grit his teeth and fly out his blade again, the weapon igniting against an unknown element and unleashing the embers on the man, setting him alight like a candle for a few seconds as he was knocked away. Landing on his back again, the man laid there while groaning in annoyance.

"This is getting boring. I'm going to end this right now!" The man announced while getting up again. Red energy lines suddenly appeared around the man while floating upwards for a few seconds and the man gained a red glow that followed his every move. "I suppose you have a move that can kill a man in a single blow? C'mon! Let's end this now!"

Johnny reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a playing card with a word 'joker' imprinted into it, but no symbol to accompany it and stared at the paper device for a few seconds. He then looked back up at the man, "Alright let's get this over with!"

The person's staff shortened and slimmed, and when it stopped morphing, the man grabbed one end of the new form to pulled outwards to reveal a blade a complete mirror image of Johnny's own sword, except the 'handle' was a reflective black metal hue, along with the rest of the 'sheath'.

Johnny took no time to admire the changed form as he flicked his wrist forward at the man in front of him, the card flew forwards on its own in a leisurely pace, while glowing with mysterious energies.

The person didn't flinch, but rather gave a sneer as he watched the object approach, "What?! You think your piece of game paper can stop me? Eat my IK! Chain the Soul!" The man flung his blade forward like a javelin, as the Johnny's joker card was about to hit him. The flying blade hit the card and ripped right through it. The pirate, who was previously sure that the card would hit his target didn't even have time to blink as the blade slammed into his chest, and became lodged there, the blade sticking out of his back. Johnny though, felt no pain with the shock nor did he see any blood appear from his wounds, only a numb feeling in his heart that was slowly spreading through his body.

"How… did you…?"

"Oh come on, a piece of paper versus a flying sharp metal, what are the odds of the paper winning?" the man rolled his eyes.

The numbness was making the pirate nauseous, and as the feeling reached his throat and gut he so dearly had the urge to throw up. Johnny then felt a something rushing up his throat and into his mouth, which he only complied with coughing out the foreign element that turned out to be… cotton? Johnny was coughing up cotton out of his body?

"What are you doing to me?" Johnny growled at the triumphant figure above him.

"The cotton? Oh don't worry about that, it happens when you're being plushified."

"What!?"

"Soon enough, you'll be part of my proud collection, and maybe I'll be able to finally rival the collection Sheo Darren has!" The man laughed loudly at the thought.

"What are you talking about?" Johnny managed to say before coughing up more cotton out of his system. His entire body had no feeling now, and the numbness was finally leaking into the grooves of his brain.

"Never mind about that, I'll just add the finishing touches on you." The man snapped his fingers, and cartoon looking machinery appeared around the pirate before surrounding him within a metal tube of some sort. The man walked up to the side of the machine that had trapped Johnny, and upon closer inspection, found a certain lever he was looking for, along with a small metal slot above it. Grumbling, the man reached into his pocket and sorted through his change.

"Friggin' quarters, always quarters. What do they think I am, rich?"

Finding the correct coin, the man inserted into the machine and pulled down on the lever. Whirring sounds and noises were heard and flashes of light and glowing sources appeared and blinked all over the machine. The person simply waited for it to end, giving a smirk during the process.

"Welcome to my collection Johnny, I'm sure you'll like it there."

********************************

An early, misty morning in China and Jam Kuradoberri raised the metal protective barrier in front of her third new restaurant. Of course, the puny place wasn't up to Jam's taste, but it was much better than small booth she been running for a while, and she already blew all her money on her first restaurant. Beggars, unfortunately for Jam, could not be choosers. 'How fate must hate me', Jam thought. She didn't even have money to pay for a waitress now.

"Um, excuse me but is this place hiring work?" A female voice asked behind Jam. The asked unsung waitress turned unsung master chef turned around to face the voice. Jam's reaction could be described as a mixture of surprised and confused. There in front of Jam was an Asian girl of about seventeen to eighteen years of age, with her shoulder length hair tied back into two pigtails. She was dressed in one of those… 'Japanese thingies' of red color, along with two black arm and leg guards and Japanese looking sandals, Jam decided described best the girl's attire. Bundled in one of her arms was a lengthy parcel wrapped in cloth. Apart from that, she seemed to be carrying nothing else. Jam then returned to the topic at hand.

"Er, yes I am desperately in need of help here. Good thing you showed up now."

"I guess."

"So how much do you want for salary? I'm willing to pay any amount!" Jam's tone sounded rather pleading, which matched her thoughts. _Please let it reasonable, please let is be reasonable…_

"I don't really need any pay, I just need a place to stay for now." The young woman simply stated. Jam, had she seen any stranger things in her life, would have fainted at her turn of luck.

_FATE MUST LOVE ME!!!!_ "Well, I guess you could room with me at my place for the moment."

"Thank you for your kindness." The girl bowed at her new employer. 

Jam laughed sheepishly at unexpected sign of respect. "Nah, its okay! But I think we should really introduce each other. I'm Jam! So, what's your name?"

"Takane Hibiki."

"Well,  Takane-"

"Hibiki is my first name." The girl corrected.

"Whatever. Hibiki, you are officially my newest, and only waitress at my restaurant now. Welcome aboard!"

"Haii."

As Jam gave Hibiki a tour of her restaurant, her mind was piecing together the information of the girl._ This girl…She couldn't really be Japanese, could she?_ Jam thought this fact over with great concern. If Hibiki really was of Japanese descent –of which many things the girl did and wore screamed that out- Jam might get in a lot of trouble.__

_Perhaps she escaped a colony, and she's on the run from the law?_ Jam shook the 'foolish notion' out of her head.

Nah, colonies are pretty tight in security. Probably the only people who escape are really good fighters, and this Hibiki person doesn't really look like fighter. She looks too young for that kind of stuff anyways. She's probably some Otaku freak or something.

With that theory sounding most likely correct to Jam, she nodded to herself in confirmation and set plans on how to effectively use one waitress within a two floor restaurant, which was a very small place to Jam, indeed.


	4. Charades

CHARADES

When the Mayship took off the current authority on the ship, May, had decided that the best place to land for the moment would be in China. It was a far distance from where the man chasing them was, and plus it was one of the major places that the pirates landed at so it would be logical that Johnny would head there to catch up. It was several days of journeying through the sky towards their destination, of which many pondered what would happen or whether their captain survived, or just what exactly was going on. One day you're enjoying life, the next thing you know a madman is suddenly chasing you with a shape shifting weapon and impossible abilities.

"Okay everyone! I'm sure that Johnny's going to be back any time soon, so I want somebody on the radio at all times. I also want any crewmembers leaving the ship to go in pairs! Got it? Good! That's all for now." May shouted out of her megaphone at the crowd below the giant wing she was standing on.

"Where is your captain?" A voice behind the leader pirate asked. The cold, mechanical tone churned old memories in May's head as she twisted her neck around to meet an old aquaintance.

"Testament?" May asked surprised, even if she knew the answer to the question.

"That is my name. Where is your captain?" The Gear restated. A small crow landed on his shoulder.

"He's out at the moment. I'm in charge right now, if there's anything you need, then bring it up with me." May finished by poking a thumb at her chest.

Testament glared at the child captain for a few seconds before asking. "I've come to locate my precious child. Where is she?"

"Testament?" Dizzy asked, curiously. The Gear quickly heard the voice and pinpointed her position among the crowd, turning to face her. He then noticed other deemed 'un-required presences' beside her.

Namely the Knight the bounty hunter that had previously attempted to take her in.

"YOU?!" Testament seemingly disappeared and rematerialized in front of the three. "How dare you appear in front of my precious in such manner! I should know better than to suspect you are holding her captive against her will again!" Testament's weapon, the scythe constructed of his own blood, appeared threateningly, daring to go ahead and remove whatever limbs Testament deemed un-required to the survival of the human body.

"Testament! No! It's not like that at all!" Dizzy said quickly in an attempt to make sure more mass bloodshed and mayhem would not happen. Testament stopped at the words, thus letting the Half Gear continue her tale. "They've been protecting me against somebody for the past days."

"…Explain." Was Testament's only answer.

"Um, Okay. Ky, Bridget, I think it would be best if you were away for a little while." Bridget quickly nodded in agreement about this matter. Dizzy was in pretty good hands now, considering how Testament was so rabid about Dizzy's protection, of which the bounty hunter learned the hard way and was more than willing to leave the area to avoid further… reenactments. Ky was not as afraid of the Gear as Bridget was, but he still respected her choices.

"If you wish. Good day, Testament." Ky turned around and walked away.

"Well… I really don't like to leave you alone, but if you're really okay…" Bridget decided to say, though torn in two about the matter of having to leave Dizzy and being able to leave Testament's glare for a little while.

"Just go, okay?"

"Okay!" Bridget's side of him saying 'run like hell from Testament' quickly turned the entire body around and proceeded to march it away as far as he could from the Gear.

"Now what is going on?" Testament asked Dizzy. She gladly poured out her tale.

Ky could neither run, nor stand his ground at this impressive force. Despite him being able to destroy Gears and hunt through blood curdling truths of the world almost daily, there was simply one thing he could not figure out.

Why on earth every time he arrived in China he always ended up-

"KYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Jam Kuradoberri stopped running towards the knight and hopped slightly to end up wrapping her arms around Ky's shoulders and staying firmly attached. Like the past three times.

"Help…" Ky weakly tugged at the Chinese girl's embrace. As uncomfortable as it was being so close to the girl's….'assets', he also knew it was rude to push away the woman like this. It was rather like a choosing between the two evils.

Let the girl continue to hang on Ky and flaunt her shapely body to him, or pull her off, break her heart and make a huge commotion in the streets.

"O, father who art thou in heaven, why must you tempt me so…" Ky silently whispered under his breath.

"KY! It's so great to have you back again! My restaurant's better than ever! Of course you still have 90% discount there! So how are you doing?" Jam finally released her grip on Ky.

"…I shall not want, he leads me by the pastures…" Ky continued his half memorized prayer of protection against all evil in the planet as Jam asked.

"Hello? Ky? You there?"

Ky suddenly was knocked out of his semi-rant. "What?"

"I was asking how you were doing." Jam asked as sweetly as possible, in her latest attempts to win his affections.

"Tired, a little worn out." Ky gave a bit of a weak smile, deciding not to let the chef in the entire fiasco of a madman chasing after him.

"Oh? You know, I happen to be good at massages…" Jam said, evil glint in her eye

_Oh Lord, why must you test me so?_ "Um…Okay…"

The conversation between Ky and Jam pretty much continued on into a walk as the chef made plenty of suggestions that could be summed up into the phrase 'date and romantic night at Jam's flat' Ky, of course managed to barely keep the conversation from that uncomfortable topic by switching to how her restaurant was going.

"Oh! My restaurant is going great! Everything couldn't be peachier now that I got that new waitress!"

"Oh?" Ky said, slightly interested in the new development in his friend's life.

"Yeah! She works hard and runs pretty fast, and she doesn't make a fuss, and she's perfect for the restaurant!"

"Where did she come from?" Ky asked to keep the conversation going in a direction that Jam couldn't use to somehow sneak back into the conversation of where's the best place to have a romantic dinner.

"I dunno, she just popped up one morning looking for work. But who cares now? Speaking of which, you look a little skinnier this time we met. Why don't you come over to my restaurant to have lunch or something? My treat!" Jam said, thus continuing her long-standing tradition of saying Ky looked skinny and she'd treat him for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack/midnight snack to fatten him up.

Ky sighed at the obvious answer. "Okay…"

"Up! UP! YES! NO! No! NOOOOOOO-"

The crazy man in black, riding his staff that had carried him to China in the form of an umbrella, had successfully made his landing into the tree put in the empty road for cosmetic purposes. It hurt of course, but he cared little for pain. Or so he said.

"Paiiiiinnnn… Heeeeeeeeelllllp…." The man groaned before getting up. "Goodness! The things I do just to kill ONE person. She must be famous or something. Only famous people are annoying like this. And this is ONE person, I'd be having to kill those other people too!" He proceeded to dust off his clothing. Underneath his coat was a mysterious new lump, unseen before in the previous viewing.

"If she's so much trouble, won't don't you try quitting?" A gruff, harsh voice growled out in obvious distaste of the man. The man in question didn't turn immediately, but when he did, he span to face him in a flash, while a rocket flew out of the motion, headed towards the location of the voice.

Sol Badguy easily ducked under the flying projectile, which impacted against a stand behind him, which exploded in a shower of debris.

"Bol Sadguy! Darest thee show thy… ugly face in front of me again-est?" The man sneered while holding the staff turned rocket launcher in his loose grip.

"What are you talking about?"

"So?! I know past your lies! You're here to kill me because I am of the great and mighty country of Canada! Confess! I know you lie!" He pointed his finger at Sol as menacingly as he could.

"Annoying…"

"Hey! Don't call me that! Oh bother, I'm going off the kill Dizzy later!" The man fixed his jacket quickly before calling his rod back to its original form, and began to walk away. He then felt the air heat up around him threateningly.

"I'm here to make sure you get the message: don't" Sol said simply. The flat, unspectacular looking blade that was Fireseal was held up to eye level.

The man groaned at the threat, "Ah, but I don't want to, it's fun and games! Plus the world will be a SAFER place with less…evil…dressing people in this planet…"

Sol wasn't listening to the last two third of the sentence though, as he was hunched over and ran towards the man like a football player, the Fireseal swinging around dangerously behind him.

"…And plus it would be a major blow to the Hentai industry is she die- HEY!" The man realized he was in a middle of a fight, and flung out his staff to counter Sol's own swinging attack. Sparks flew as the two metals collided against each other.

"Hey! Do not interrupt an artist when he is ranting!" The man felt sweat trickle from under his bandanna masked head while he tried to push his staff forward to keep the locked weapons away from his face.

"Twerp talks even more than the kid." Sol mused to himself as he easily pushed both weapons back in front of the person's face with one hand.

"Gah! Accursed… Gears!" The person gasped as he pushed forward with his entire body to try and win the contest of strength. Sol kept his surprise at the comment inward, and replaced it with a angry look.

"What did you say!?" Sol shouted.

The man twisted his head to look beside the crossed weapons and made a face that probably would have an eyebrow raised from under the mask.

"I said "accursed Gears"! Is that a crime? I suppose with you silly Americans, picking fights over everything, like that pointless war against the Nazis for world peace, and the same thing that happened in Iraq. For world peace! Who needs that silly idea anymore…"

Sol, in the middle of hearing the person's blather felt a sharp pain enter his mind, as if cold glass had began cutting through his brain.

_The bastard's talking is actually HURTING ME!_ Sol gave an angry cry at the revelation and seeing the man apparently being one step ahead of him all the time, before jumping back, letting the other man give a yelp of surprise as his momentum and weight made him fall into the Sol's burning fist. Sol on the giving end watch the man's face contact his Fafnir, making him fly into the empty stands, bringing about a large crash while dust and ruin flew everywhere. The world's best bounty hunter watched the person push away a thatched covering of a shop off him, sneering.

"What have I told you? You do not interrupt an artist's rant!"

"How did you do that?" Sol responded.

"Ya mean the splittin' headaches? The Will and The Word. Tasty…" Sol snorted at the dumb answer, but the man continued, "Neh, you're acting mighty O-O-C today, you spoke more than three sentences! I'm going to have to kill you now." The man's black quarterstaff immediately began shrinking and changing form, which reminded Sol distinctly of that shadowy bastard, Eddie. The black object stilled its shape in one that had a long barrel and handle grip on one end, and a small metal tab directly in front. The man pulled back on a lever on it, releasing a significant "click" from it. He pointed the object at the bounty hunter.

"My Anti-Everything will drink of your blood. But first I must spice you with some lead. Cheers!" The man pulled on a trigger near the hand grip, and the object roared flames.

"That's why they're here Testament." Dizzy finally finished her story to her Gear companion who silently listened to the entire story. Dizzy, along with several other members of the pirate ship that had carrying several miscellaneous people aboard were all currently seated around a large table in a restaurant. Testament, decided to remain invisible to the mortal world, though Dizzy somehow was able to pick out the location he was standing, and converse with him. Dizzy then heard Testament's silent reply, only audible to her.

"The question is whether you trust these people whom say they protect you."

"I do" Dizzy answered.

"Then I shall tolerate their presence as long as I see fit while I accompany you for protection until this entire matter is over."

Another voice loudly cut through the conversation, as she dragged her hapless victim into a seat. "Just look at the menu Ky, and tell me what you want." Said Holy Knight and origin of the invisible Gear Testament's displeasure, gave one of those inward sighs and sank his head behind the plastic menu, while his affectionate psychotic fan stared at the back of her menu held in front of her lovingly. Or obsessively, depends on how realistic you are. During this process of Ky trying to find his meal of choice, he noticed the single waitress in the restaurant that was working diligently in her line of employment, a girl that looked to be in her late teen years.

"So this is the Hibiki lady that you have told me about?" Ky asked rather innocently.

"Yeah?" Jam started; though those flames of possessiveness grew in her eyes_ Hibiki better not like Ky! _Jam easily hid those emotions under a simple question "So have you decided what you wanted yet?"

"SEAFOOD FRIED RICE!" Came a mighty yell from outside, before a figure flew through the windows at high velocity, and landed rather comfortably in the table behind Ky and Jam's own, which just happened to be the table that seated the pirates. Much commotion and shouting came about was the table collapsed under the force of the flying man's landing. To everyone's shock, horror, or surprise, a familiar bandanna masked face appeared once again to harass them.

" 'Cept I ain't Dutch…" The man sleepily murmured to himself. Looking around at the gaping faces around him, he simply answered to them, "As much as I love you see you guys recognize me, I must destroy you guys later. First…" The man noticed his black automatic weapon lying on his lap. Slowly grabbing the device, and picking himself up, the Anti-Everything mutated its form again to turn into a large circular array of six barrels.

"DIE QUEEN FAN!" The person depressed on another familiar finger trigger that made the weapon spin and release a monstrous roar and a large flame. For those in the restaurant that remembered their history lessons, they realized the weapon before them was Blacktech, and lethal to many in front of it. Many people within the packed floor screamed in terror and ducked to avoid the ensuing onslaught of exploding wood, people, and bullets flying everywhere. Surprisingly, despite the telltale signs of the roaring weapon, and the many spent casing flying out one side, no death or destruction came. The man holding the weapon laughed loudly for a few seconds before letting the weapon stop it's deadly tune.

"You silly people! Blanks! This next bit's the one with the REAL bullets! DIE QUEEN FAN!" With his mission to remove any unnecessary organic collateral damage a success, the man again depressed the trigger, making the weapon spit out real flying hot lead, making the scenery around the ducked people explode and glass shatter, while outside the targeted Queen fan jumped behind some cover in front of the restaurant.

"You're killing my restaurant! You bastard!" came a scream from behind the man.

"Neh?" The man turned his head slightly to see the flying shapely leg enter all of his vision, which means that he got kicked hard in the head. Landing into the wooden wall beside him, the man's head was lodged halfway into the material of the wall, seemingly dazed for a second.

"I have been touched by the shapely leg of a sexy cook! What are the chances! Oh well… DIE QUEEN FAN!" The man scrunched up his face in determination, and began to fire his chain gun again, despite half of his head being inside a wall. More of the restaurant blew up. A pair of hand now grabbed the half buried man by his single shoulder, pulled him out of the wall and shoved him forcefully, making him end up falling over himself and landing on the floor. This time, the person's weapon stopped firing for good. Ky looked down on the recovering man with rather murderous look.

"How did you find us?" Ky asked.

The man on the ground shook his head somewhat the remove the dust collecting on his head, "Simple! I follow the wind patterens!"

"That's impossible."

"Never say never!" The man pointed back up accusingly with a giggle, as if he were drunk.

"Hey Ky! Who's this loser?" Jam asked behind him. Ky answered while keeping his eyes on the seated man.

"A dangerous suspect."

"Loser? Yes, Dangerous? Hardly…"

"You're endangering the life of countless around you, and my comrades."

"Hardly! Nobody's dead around here, and all your comrades…" The man looked behind Ky to see the gang of pirates approaching, "Are you sure you're using the right word in concern of your relation to them?"

"Yes." Ky answered while May, had just come around and grabbed the collar to drag his face near her's.

"How did you get here!?" The cute captain shouted.

"Didn't ye hear lass? Me followed the mighty wind currents of the seven…wind…sea…things…" The man answered with mock accent.

"Johnny should have stopped you!" May countered.

The man returned a blank stare. "Johnny? What Johnny? I know plenty of blond Americans that use that name…"

"JOHNNY!"

The man gave a look of realization before continuing. "Oh! Now I remember you! You're that Hadoken-less chick! Fireball!" The man thrust a palm in a direction before giggling.

"How did get past Johnny?" May asked, getting more infuriated with each passing second.

"I beat him!"

"You're lying."

"Why would I?"

"Johnny's too good! He'd beat you easily!"

The man stuck up a finger and waved it. "Too is a bad word to say! It's even, yet it has three letters! Hypocritical!"

"Shut up! You're nothing but a liar!" May shouted back.

"But I did beat him! Look! I turned him into a plushie!" The man pulled out the lump from underneath his jacket, and May stared at it with wide eyes. The doll carried every exact bit of familiarity between itself and the man it was made off. Wearing the same clothing, and sewn to one "hand" the brown stick that was supposed to be his Zatoichi, and the dumb smile on his face…

"You see, I got the captain stuck in a machine that turns flesh into cotton. Nifty, eh?"

May staggered back in shock, "That… that… It's…"

"Never say never!" The man snickered.

"You monster!" Ky shouted.

"Monster? Nah, that's our other half. Me, I'm the artistic side."

"You killed Johnny…" May gave the deadly whisper.

The person waved his hand at the silly notion. "No, no, no, Not kill, merely trans…trans…. Can't think of a word to finish-"

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" May charged forward, swinging her heavy steel weapon of choice at the seated man, tears flying and her screaming. The person grabbed the black staff beside him and used it as leverage to flip himself backwards as the pirate's anchor came crashing down of his previous position on the floor. The two faced off while people again where screaming and escaping the ruins of the restaurant.

"I'll get you for this!" May continued to scream harshly at the person.

"You can, but wish to try, but you can't even spin through the air and stick your leg out!" The man laughed psychotically and jumped backwards and out of the building entrance, with May following behind.

"May! Wait for us!" Dizzy chased behind her, with Ky and an invisible Gear following behind her, as well as other gifted fighters.

Meanwhile, admist the chaos, a long female looked at the scene unfolding as the masked figure mocked and dodged each blow by the younger woman out in the streets. Hibiki Takane whispered a word of her own.

"Person…" She then ran off in another direction, a goal clearly set in her mind.

"Oi! It's been the fifteenth strike out! Don't you have any better batters? Ha ha!" The man giggled and leaned away from another wild blow.

"Shut up! Just shut up! I'll get you!" May cried again with heated tears flying.

"Shut up, shut up, just shut up, shut up… neh, neh, neh, neh, neh, neh, neh, neh…" The man began to hum a song to himself, only making the pirate even angrier. While she tried to swing even harder then ever, the person saw an opportunity to fall down and swing his leg into the side of May's own, forcing her to lose balance so that she fell to the ground.

"Overheads! Nothing but Overheads! Too ea-" the mocking figure felt the top of his head, in fact, his whole upper body, collapsed under a force of extreme heat behind him while a voice growled "Bandit Bringer". Strangely enough, a voice came from nowhere and shouted "Counter!" the moment Sol's attack from behind hit.

"Counter hit! Embarrassing! Me being caught off guard like that!" The man talked to himself while on the ground, then quickly jumped back up so that his quarterstaff blocked an advancing sword strike. A heavy object collided from behind making the man topple again.

"That was for Johnny!" May shouted.

"Gah! My old man hip!" The man collapsed rather exaggeratedly. Sol watched the angry young pirate with an inward amusement while covering it up with a deep frown.

"Who the hell asked for your help?" Sol demanded.

"I'm just trying to make him pay!" May returned angrily.

"Sol! What are you doing here?" Ky's presence was made known at the head of the remaining Daredevils that were arriving. Sol merely snorted and turned his back to his "Rival" while landing his boot on the grounded lunatic's head.

"Oi! Chief! You made it!" Axl, who was among the company landed beside his proclaimed superior, "Looks like you beat the guy up!"

"Go away Axl…"

"So what? That was it?" Bridget asked incredulously at the man who simply collapsed under two blows. Dizzy among other pirates mourned for the loss of their captain, then…

"BURST ATTACK!" the once unconscious man rose up into the air and made a motion, while releasing a gold force field around him, blowing many of the fighters around him away, "Easy! Such easy trick! Just pretend to be dead and they always fall! So pathetically easy!" The man mocked and laughed. "I tire of this useless game, I'm full out now! Beware of my depth of super power!" Everybody around the man prepared for the man's all out.

"Gold tension, go! Overdrive move 'My Alias Is'! GO!" A flash of special effects emanated from the man and he threw his Anti-E quarterstaff into the air where it began to change form. It wasn't the only thing changing though.

"My God…" Ky whispered in shock as the entire shape of the man began to change. The clothing lengthened, hardened, mutated. The bandanna covering the man's head began to move even further down, transforming into black steel while the tail ends tying the bandanna frayed out into million of strands of seemingly hair. The Anti-E fell back down from the sky as a mechanical tail, which slotted perfectly into a section in the back of the new form of the man.

"Justice!?" Ky gave his strangled cry at the sight of the seemingly living Command Gear, "Impossible!"

"Never say never, as my pitiful human disguise would say." Justice responded. Sol snorted again, while Ky shouted back at the looming creature.

"The dead cannot return!"

"I did once. I shall as long as many times as I need until my purpose is complete." The Gear simply replied. "I shall awaken all the Gears to my command, and rid the world of the humans!" Justice began to laugh, before it noticed the blood red scythe pointed at its eye.

Testament, standing upon the large shoulder pad of Justice, glared down at his threatened victim. "You dare insult the blood of thousands killed?"

Justice stared back into the eyes of the other Gear. "You dare judge my will, slave?" From the mere contact of eye, Testament felt the cries of his will to be submissive to the mechanization in front of him. The cries were harsh oppressive, not caring and soft like Justice had cried to her Gears when she lived.

This Justice is fake. It's command protocol is weak, I can still…resist…"Don't mock me, fake!" Testament raised his crimson blade to swing down at Justice's head. The Command Gear merely launched her opened fist at Testament with lightning speed, and grabbed him, where then Justice threw him into the side of a building where it exploded into a cloud of dust and debris. 

"Testament" Came Dizzy's cry.

Then all of them heard the giggling from Justice, the commanding synthesized voice replaced by a tinny speaker and the real voice. "Okay! So I tricked you. I can't be a dead Command Gear, but I can be **a** Command Gear! Feast your eyes mortals on my true power!" The man's voice echoed through the speaker.

"You're a coward!" Bridget accused. "You can't even beat us in a fair fight!"

"That is why video gamers invented the Tier System, duh. Gotta kill you all now! Ciao!" The man's voice seemingly sneered on its own while two hatches on the shoulder pads opened upwards, revealing on both sides an array of red hemispheres of a glassy composition. "You can't escape this Gamma Ray!" He proclaimed. Sol charged towards the Gear-Fake, but quickly found himself sliding back, as if he was being pushed while standing on smooth ice.

"Ha ha! A little thing I cooked up on my Justice look, untouchable by all!" The globes were beginning to glow a white, but instead of the comfort the color usually gave, they all a twinge of fear somewhere inside them all. They couldn't even touch him. They were about… to die?

May, who was in the rear, suddenly felt someone rush past her at amazing speed. Then Axl noticed, then Jam recognized.

"Hibiki!? What are you doing?"

Hibiki finally passed Ky in the front of the crowd, who was trying to grab for the girl's safety as she dashed towards the Gear in front of them. Dressed in her orange outfit and in her hand, a long clothed object, she turned back to answer. "What I'm here to do." She continued running.

"Ms. Takane, You're going to kill yourself!" Ky shouted and chased after her. Sol snorted for the third time in the day. "Stupid girl…"

Ky found himself already being pushed away by the mysterious force around the fake Justice, but the Hibiki woman was only slowing down somewhat and she continued pushing forwards towards it. _What on earth…_ was the only thought Ky could think.

"What!? How you pass my supa-field thing?" The Justice imitation said in shock, but quickly released its next defense by swinging its black-clawed hand at the approaching girl. The girl continued running towards the attack.

_Wait until the last most possible moment, then…_ The girl disappeared as the claw broke smashed into the ground. The Justice imitation growled, but Hibiki's voice behind him answered quietly.

"Shinu."

With the utterance of that single phrase, a gigantic gash shattered the armored side of the Command Gear, a sound of gases poured out. Hibiki meanwhile pushed the sword she held back into its sheath while it's previous wrappings had disappeared.

"Gah! My spleen!" The tinny hidden speaker screamed while its owner collapsed to one knee. To the never-ending surprise of all around, Hibiki addressed the damaged figure.

"What is your name, Author?"

The Gear stared back at her with one eye. "What do you talk about? I don't NEED names… Neheheheheh…" The tinny speaker gave another giggle.

Hibiki sighed at the answer, "So it's true. You have truly turned insane, and forgotten your purpose…"

"Fool girl! I know my purpose well enough! To destroy all that is illogical, and all who embrace it! Like you!" The man turned around despite its broken state to face the girl, the two shoulder hatches still open and raring to go. "I shall toast you with a Gamma Ray! No can you dodge-"

Hibiki already dashed over the gigantic weapon with her blade flashing again. The screech of steel crushed was audible, and one of the raised hatches fell off.

"AH! Do you know what you just did!?" The Command Gear yelled at her. Hibiki simply nodded yes. Soon enough steam and electricity was being released, arcing around while the tinny speaker screamed in pain.

Hibiki Takane, the one who defeated the madman quickly ran past the crowd and grabbed May's hand while running. "Follow me if you want to live, he will explode and you will all die." The rest of the crowd needed no more warning, and quickly ran after the girl while the fake Justice was glowing white.

Hibiki watched from the glass sealed porthole of the Mayship while an explosion beneath them commenced. A small one, but significant. A hand then grabbed the young Takane's shoulder and twisted her around. Hibiki saw Jam stare at her with wonder, "How the heck did you do that!? You beat up that guy like no trouble at all!"

"I would also like know what is happening around here, since you obviously know this man." Came Ky's question from behind Jam. Hibiki nodded in understanding.

"I shall, but not now. I know a safe place, but it's a distance from here. May?" The inquired Pirate girl, face still a little puffy from tears turned to face Hibiki in acknowledgement, and Hibiki continued then, "I need you to take this ship to the Mediterranean. I shall give you specific coordinates once we get there, then I shall answer all of your questions."


	5. Story Time

STORY TIME

"For those who know, welcome back to Babylon." Hibiki said back to her companions while looking down at the collection of half-submerged buildings beneath them. For those who did know, they felt the hair on their back straighten at the name of the area. Not long ago this was the favorite roving ground of the mysterious musician, I-no. Dizzy and May had a stronger dislike to this area more than anybody else. In the same place was the battleground and living place of the psychic Jeremy Colt, who also baited the pirates again, and had a death match against the innocent Gear, which nearly ended up with both their deaths. In fact, it was the idea that Jeremy might still be here which was the point of May's annoyed outburst.

"Here!? How is this place any better than any other place in the world, that psycho will just follow us here as well!" The pirate whined.

Hibiki did not answer the question but pointed to a certain patch of water, "Land there."

"But that's just water!"

"There is a long building completely underwater there, but close enough to the surface to land. Trust me."

She did give a rather odd stare, but May gave the landing orders nonetheless. Not surprisingly, the large airship crashed into the water, but was abruptly stopped its descent by some unseen structure underwater. There was a silence while the noise of engines began to wane. Hibiki then faced her companions.

"For those who want answers to the current situation, I suggest you follow me." The answer was obvious as all of the people who had their run-in with the man followed after Hibki as she went down the hallways to an access hatch. Ignoring the water that soaked their clothing up to their ankles as they hopped down from the Mayship unto the roof of the submerged building, they walked closely behind the young woman carrying her sheathed blade. Reaching a large metal door that sat just above the water level, Hibiki grabbed the rusted handle and easily, pulling open the barrier and revealing a series of steps that disappeared down into the darkness. The swordswoman turned back to face the crowd, but more specifically, two people within it.

"Dizzy, May." Hibiki calmly replied. The two pirates let their attention be caught. Hibiki then continued. "I know of the history of this place to you two. You need not fear the psychic who lived here, as he is long gone. Babylon is also an area considered practically sacred to Person-san, therefore he would never dream of approaching this place."

"How do you know all this? How can you be sure?" Ky (who was also familiar with the psychic) asked.

Hibiki again didn't respond but instead passed through the door and down the steps, only looking back once to speak, "I promise I will tell all of you once we are settled inside. Please follow."

They passed through halls and roofs, an uncountable number of them. Again, the memories of the place were stirred, but they tried to ignore it the best they could. Eventually they entered a chamber. Here a fireplace was ashy and dead, and the furniture were turned over like unceremoniously, and countless papers were thrown everywhere. Several corpses foreign to the party were also strewn around, but these corpses did not rot. Jam immediately identified the bodies.

"Hey! Its those robo-freaks!" Indeed the bodies were all dressed in the same uniform as Jam's crush, and metal frowning faces was the testimony of their service before their untimely destruction. Most of them were cut cleanly in two, as if a sheet of paper had been the blade that destroyed them.

"So… what happened here?" Bridget, being the least informed of the group, decided it was best he asked.

Hibiki spoke while searching one of the drawers for an item unknown. "Shortly after Dizzy and May escaped Babylon after the fiasco with Colt, a battalion of Robo-Ky's ambushed the city, hoping to catch the psychic. He barely escaped here, but he knows better than to return here, which is why we are safe from him." Finding what she was looking for, Hibiki pulled the box of matches out of the wrecked drawer, and struck on alight and tossed it into the fireplace where, with some prodding, a fire soon grew to maturity. Hibiki then faced the crowd standing around the flames, and asked them all to be seated. After righting the overturned chairs and pulling some broken Robo-Ky torsos over to use as stools, the swordswoman spoke again.

"I assume you have questions."

"Yeah, who's this creep?" May asked first.

"In order to understand that completely, you must understand some other things first."

"Like what?" Bridget asked again.

"Like the fact that you are not alone in this universe." Hibki responded. There was a hush of surprise, then Ky spoke.

"Explain yourself."

"Have you ever heard of the multi-universe concept?" Hibki asked. Some nods.

"As you know, it is theorized that there are multiple versions of planet Earth, but you should know that that is no theory. That is truth."

"Do you expect us to believe that shit?" Sol snorted from his Robo-Ky cushion.

"Yes. For that man who hunts you now is actually from another universe."

A hush of silence.

"So then, what's the crazy guy's story?" Axl quipped from the back. Hibiki drew in a deep breath.

**When the universes dawned, Fate was able to govern it easily, her powers capable with dealing with such a vast area. But as time passed, man's technology had grown powerful, and humanity greedy. In their lust and selfishness, they often made things happen before their time was to come, and before Fate was ready to let it happen, and bent the rules of the universe to achieve sick desires. Wars started before they where meant to. Worlds died, and people died. Fate needed to solve this problem. **

**Thus the Authors were born. Living in a pocket dimension of their own, they watch over specific universes charged to them and ensure when something happens, it happens when it is meant to, and to correct mistakes that happen. You cannot comprehend the number of famines, plagues, Armageddons, and plans for world domination that had been destroyed by these people. They work behind the scenes, around it, under it, and about every possible direction, all the while as they try to directly stay out of it.**

**To achieve such tasks, they were gifted with far-advanced technology beyond imagination, and special powers to aid them. No one knows the exact beginnings of Authors, only that they are here to ensure the smooth flow of destiny. Some authors work from hidden places, others in groups, and some take the matters into their hands personally.**

**When an author is inducted into their world, they must do two things: Give themselves a title, and forget their previous name, then after receive the power known as The Will and The Word.**

**The Will and the Word… This power, along with their title is the basis on which their unique power is based. By The Will and The Word, does the Author by his sheer strength of heart alone, have the powers to govern each system tasked to them.**

**The Authors. They are the Keepers of the Systems…**

There was silence. Then Sol spoke. "How does this guy fit into all of this?"

Hibiki again had an answer. "The man you face now is an Author, whose title 'The Person With Many Aliases'. With The Will and The Word, the title now gives him a very special ability. You can easily guess."

"He can shape shift…" Ky mused to himself.

"So how does this Will Word thing work anyways?" Axl asked.

The Will and The Word allows one to alter reality to the way the user see fits. What he wants to happen **will** happen."

Gasps of shock reverberated throughout the room, realizing the depths of power this man had.

"But before you start collapsing in fear, I think it's best if you let me finish my explanation." That statement easily caught the attention of the rest of the crowd. Hibiki continued again.

"The ability to will things to happen though, asks inhumane amounts of power, often beyond what the user can give. Most Authors have limited skill with this ability. Person-san has practiced with this power, but he can only proficiently will things to change shape, and even that only with the help of his machinery and if he remains in near proximity to it. I have seen him able to create some things, but this was only on occasion, and for limited periods of time. Among the Authors, only one man has fully mastered the ability, and he was The Will and The Word's inventor himself.

"Your Authors… could they have prevented the Holy War?" Ky asked, absorbing the information. Hibiki shook her head.

"No, the war was an inevitable event, like the discovery of Magic. We at most, could only manage the events, and ensure things happened as they should."

"So… what does this Person want from me? He keeps mentioning things about us being illogical." Dizzy hesitantly asked. She was afraid of the answer though.

Hibiki sighed at the thought of the Author saying such things "Among the duties of an author, he has to maintain the 'programming' of the universe, and ensure everything remains logically possible, and eliminate possible natural exceptions from occurring. For if one minor thing is allowed to be impossible, what is to stop other more serious things to become impossible as well, say… the very air around us can be poisonous if it wanted to?"

"So what does this have to do with me?" Dizzy asked.

"Person-san thinks you are illogical. He thinks that because you are human, that it is impossible and therefore destroyed."

"What?!"

"That's crazy! The guy's a lunatic to say something like that!" May defended. Hibiki only nodded understandingly.

"Exactly."

The young Captain gave a strange look, "What?"

"Just a year ago, Person-san had suffered from an accident. While he recovered, he began to periodically lapse into fits of utter insanity. For such a man to become such a condition in such an important role is lethal, and therefore we took steps to protect him from the worlds he looked over."

"How?" Bridget questioned, wondering how such a powerful force he knew could possible be controlled.

"We locked him in his room." Hibiki replied.

An air of silence. An **odd** air of silence.

"Unfortunately, just a few days ago, he managed to break free and escape. His intents were revealed to continue his job, but in his mind, he took everything too seriously, and too literally. Therefore that is why he hunts all now, for he considers you all impossible, despite the exceptions that Magic technology enables, and defiantly despite his own powers."

"So how do we stop this guy?" The older Englishman, Axl, pointed out the most important question again.

"You can't. Because of his powers, no matter how many times you strike him, he can never be injured. At this point, only another Author can stop an Author. But currently, none are here."

"What are they waiting around for then? Why are they just letting him run around?" May shouted, angry at the hopelessness of the situation.

"Do you think we already have not tried? Somehow Person-san has tampered with the Warpgate he used to get here so that no other authors can pass through after him." Hibiki replied fiercely.

"Then, what about you? Aren't you an Author yourself?" Ky asked confused.

"I never said I was one." Hibiki answered, with a gentle smile.

"Then what are you?" Ky again inquired.

"Merely an assistant to an Author." Hibiki looked at the confused faces of her audience. "What? Even with all their powers, an Author is still only human."

"How did you get here then, if the Person said authors can't come through?" Sol's gruff voice came from the back.

"Because he only thought about authors coming to stop him, and not their assistants. While I can at most only stun him, I can still aid you."

"How?" Dizzy now asked.

"Like telling you how you can stop him."

"But you said only an author can stop an author, so how do we stop him?"

Hibiki looked back into the fireplace, and poked the logs a bit with the metal poker standing against one side of the burning pit. "While he is powerful, he couldn't have blocked passage into here by himself." Hibiki turned back to face the Daredevils, "He is using your magic to seal the Warp tunnel that leads here. Once we find a way to dispel the magic he is using, then I can call authors here to help us. The only problem is that I don't know what sort of magic he is using to seal the passage. That is why I need your help in the mean time. Two is always better than one, for the Person can still best me in battle."

May suddenly thought back to an earlier memory, and cried out, "That creep turned Johnny into a doll! I can't leave him like that!"

"Don't worry, as soon as the other authors come to stop Person-san, then we can then help your friend who's soul is chained by him."

"Another thing, how much does this Person With Many Aliases know about us?" Sol asked. _The turd knows I'm a Gear…_

"A great deal about everything about some of you, but not everything." Hibiki replied.

"I'm sorry I asked." Sol retorted at the thought.

"So what do we do next?" Bridget asked.

"Rest, then fly to Romania. There is an archive of magic there that most likely explains the spell Person-san used, and that is what I need to know. So rest here until then." Hibiki then moved to a corner of the room to sit in. Others followed the example and settled themselves where they wished.

"So, just wondering. Is there a guy that owns the archive or anything?" Axl asked, while leaning against a shattered desk.

Hibiki gave another knowing smile of hers, "Yes, the archive is actually in his home. In fact, some of you already know of this man. He is known as Slayer."__


End file.
